Cultivating a reader

Take the necessary time and steps to teach your child to love the written word
theSun, Tue, 03 Feb 2009


I FEEL blessed that my daughter loves to read although, at times, too excessively. Some parents and friends tell me it’s better she reads excessively rather than like their children who prefer not to or are slow in picking up the habit.
I don’t profess to be an expert here but I would like to share what I have done to cultivate this love for books in my child.

Start them young

I started reading to my daughter even before she was born. I read that talking to your unborn child would help your child bond faster with you as babies can recognise their mother’s voice the minute they are born. Since I love to read, I used that to ‘talk’ to her when I ran out of things to say.

When she was a newborn, I continued to read to her as part of the bonding process. The reading sessions became more exciting with different voice tones, funny noises, gestures and actions as she grew into a toddler and pre-schooler.

Get them involved

Read ‘with’ them instead of ‘to’ them. As my daughter grew older and could understand more words, reading became a fun joint-activity.

We pointed out pictures, got her to turn the pages, lift the flaps, and answered her questions. We frequented bookstores together and I let her choose her own books.

Get creative

Children love surprises and new things. My husband and I sometimes add different characters or change the plot of her favourite story to make it more exciting.

We also create totally new stories of our own using familiar characters from some of the books we had read together. We encourage her to create her own stories, writing it down as she narrated so we could read them again in future. We also encouraged her to illustrate her stories.

Be an example

Children are copycats. If you are polite, they will be polite. Read and they will too. It was easier for us to set an example since my husband and I both enjoy reading.

Let them see you read. Share with them what you are reading if it is age-appropriate. It could be an interesting piece of news with a picture in the newspaper or magazine, a humorous story from your book or even a comic strip.

Provide variety

Expose them to books of various themes and topics such as adventure, humour, educational, animals, the human body, activity books … the list goes on.

Children are curious and love to explore new things, including books. Keep them motivated with variety so they do not get bored.

Indulge their interest

Do not curb their interest on subjects that you may think is not interesting or suitable, as long as the contents are not harmful and you are there to guide them.

There is nothing wrong, for instance, for your child to read about the art of tattoo. It is good general knowledge although that has been overshadowed by its negative connotations to street gangs and extreme behaviour. That is where your guidance steps in.